DARK ANGEL released "Extinction Level Event" on September 5th, 2025 — their first studio album in thirty-four years, following 1991's "Time Does Not Heal." The Los Angeles band who once billed themselves as the caffeine machine of thrash recorded it between July 2024 and February 2025 at Armoury Studios in Vancouver with producer Rob Shallcross and Mike Fraser mixing. Gene Hoglan returned behind the kit, and the sessions were shadowed by loss: founding guitarist Jim Durkin died in 2023, and his posthumous writing credits appear on several songs including the title track. Laura Christine came in on rhythm guitar for her first DARK ANGEL record. Comeback albums from eighties thrash bands are usually exercises in nostalgia management; this one arrived with the density and tempo intact, and with Durkin's fingerprints still on the material.
